Have you ever realized that something you’d assumed was a universal experience was, in fact, not? Recently, I’ve had a number of those realizations, and a comment by a coach kicked off a series of them. When I explained that the answer to the question, “What do you want to do?” has always eluded me because I want to do almost everything, she said, “Oh, you’re a scanner personality!”
After some investigation (and reading two books), I really must agree with her.
Barbara Sher and the Scanner Personality
Barbara Sher coined the phrase “scanner personality,” in her 1994 book, I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was. She expanded on the concept in her 2006 book, Refuse to Choose!. A Scanner is somebody who struggles to find one focus in life. They find many different interests enticing, to the point where choosing one feels stifling. They often feel bored or stifled in a scenario where they have to focus on just one thing.
It’s funny – I’ve always said that I do best when I’m working on three things: one to work on, one to procrastinate on, and one to look forward to.
So – are you a scanner? Sher is quick to point out that some might be in a scenario that makes them feel like a scanner – someone in a battle with depression where choosing what to focus on feels impossible, or someone with ADHD who literally can’t focus. But if what I’m describing resonates with you, you might just be one.
Sher notes that Scanners really only started feeling out of place in society recently. Following WWII, specialization became king in careers. If you look further into the past, you’ll see some of the most revered minds of all time were Scanners. Da Vinci and Ben Franklin come to mind – men who dabbled in a bit of everything and were respected for it.
So, what do you do if you’re a Scanner personality? Let’s start with Sher’s books.
I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was
I Could Do Anything… is for anyone who doesn’t know what to do next in their lives. It reads like a hybrid of a self-help book and a workbook. First, it challenges you to decide why you can’t choose what to do. It has exercises to help get around your brain screaming, “I DON’T KNOW!” and then has targeted exercises for each of the reasons. This book is where the term “Scanner” first appeared because it is one of the reasons why people can’t decide what to do with their lives!
This book isn’t without its faults. Written in 1994, it has some outdated references (she explains how online forums work). Also, if you’re one who feels patronized when a book reassures you that your feelings are normal, then (1) this book is not for you and (2) why are you reading self-help books? For me, these quirks were endearing rather than off-putting, but you do you.
I frequently found myself thinking of people who needed to read this book or do a particular exercise. I want to give a copy to every fresh college grad and everyone who’s feeling a little stuck in their lives.
Refuse to Choose! and the Scanner Personality
After publishing I Could Do Anything…, Sher was inundated with folks writing in saying, “You’ve nailed it! I’m a Scanner! I want to do ALL THE THINGS!”. So she collected a bunch of their stories and wrote Refuse to Choose!, classifying all the types of scanners and cataloging ways for them to find satisfaction in life.
If you pick up this book, you can expect a look into how the different Scanners perceive their interests, some blindspots they might have, and suggested career models and skills to pick up in order to maximize life happiness.
I wholeheartedly enjoyed this book and immediately wanted to buy several copies to gift. But I’m not sure this book has much value unless you are a Scanner. (Maybe if you’re frustrated with a Scanner in your home and their hobbies are EVERYWHERE GAH…) But for the most part, this book’s audience is more focused than I Could Do Anything…
My Biggest Takeaways for my Scanner Personality
I dove into this topic at an uncomfortable time in my life. I had moved across the world, hadn’t found a job, and was really struggling to figure out what to do with my time. I’m fortunate to have so much freedom, but I was drowning in it.
These two books drastically shifted my perspective on my life, and I left with three major takeaways:
“What do I want to do?” can be “Everything!”
I have a degree in Brand Management and used it professionally until the Berlin move, and I’m lucky to have found myself in a career that perfectly blends my analytical and creative sides. But I’ve always had at least two big side projects running in my spare time, and in the absence of a job, I’ve been able to give all my time over to those projects.
And it’s been hard.
I talked a little about unraveling my self-definitions in this post. And I’ve realized how much of my self-worth I’ve tied into my career. But I’ve never considered myself “career-oriented” – I enjoy my career and am far from being done with it, but it’s not the end aim of my life.
Refuse to Choose! has opened me to the possibility that I don’t have to excel in just one thing to make a mark on the world. And it’s also helped me acknowledge that I will never be satisfied focusing on just one thing – be that my career or something else.
How long my life will be
Easily my favorite exercise in I Could Do Anything… was one in which I planned my life out. The book instructs you to start from your birth and imagine you had planned every major event in your life. Then, when you reach present day, you extend the activity to your 90th birthday, planning all the major events and answering some reflection questions.
I struggle a bit with feeling like I need to everything RIGHT NOW. I’ve been quieting the panic with my Personal Scrum system, but this particular exercise surprised me. I was happily writing all the things I want to do, filling in decades until suddenly…
I ran out of ideas around age 65! I struggled to fill those last 25 years with big exciting goals.
And in that moment, I felt a weight lift off my shoulders. I have so much TIME. Life is LONG. And I don’t need to worry about doing everything all at once. The time will come.
How (and when) to quit
I’m terrible at deciding to quit. I suffered through the last third of Moby Dick because I couldn’t convince myself that the end was going to be just as unsatisfying as the rest of the book. Turns out, authors don’t change their style in the end of a book, so now I know that Moby Dick sucks the whole way through.
But Refuse to Choose! has a system for quitting. She urges you to assess why you’re attracted to activities and what it is you want out of the experience. When you’ve gotten what you wanted, you are allowed to just walk away from it.
She has a great analogy and a suggestion for how to feel good about quitting, so I’d suggest reading the book for the full experience there.
But she opened me to the possibility that a completed product isn’t the only acceptable ending for an interest. And an unfinished project isn’t wasted materials – there are plenty of finishers in the world.
Conclusion
Barbara Sher put her finger on a part of my personality that I didn’t know existed (but that my husband isn’t a bit surprised about). If you’re feeling lost in life or overwhelmed by your options, her warm, silly books might just pull you out of your funk and I would highly recommend them.
